Along Came Jane
by Lana Del Something
Summary: Set in season 11. Sam and Dean come across a witch in their room, with an affiliation for both them... and Crowley.
1. Chapter 1

_Sort of canonical...but then again not... it's going to jump around from bits in the show to bits in my head but... you'll get the drill. Set during season 11._

The darkness was something no one could escape. Not least Sam and Dean. The plunging clouds swirled around them and neither of them dared to move an inch. In fear, they stared at each other as it rushed towards them with a ferocity neither of them could fathom was coming from something as light as smoke.

Suddenly Dean was gone. Sam's world went black.

"What's the plan?" Sam asked Dean as they left the cheap motel they had just checked in to.

"I haven't got a plan, Sammy," Dean growled, why did that boy always expecting him to have the answers? The darkness wasn't going away so far and they had hardly done any research into stopping it. What made Sam think that he'd suddenly had a grand epiphany?

"We'll figure it out..."

Dean didn't turn to look at him.

Sam patted himself down, tsking much to his brother's chagrin.

"I left my badge in the room, one minute,"

Sam turned at walked back into the room, humming gently to himself as he walked towards his bedside table. There was someone on his bed.

With one hand under his pillow sat a young woman, practically frozen with fear.

Sam whipped out his gun and pointed it at the intruder.

"Dean!"

Seconds later Dean rushed into the room.

Sam was held against the wall, levitating, his gun on the floor.

"You let him go, you bitch!"

"Dean, calm down," The man faltered. The young woman, now with one hand stretched, seemingly holding Sam against the wall, knew his name. Dean looked from Sam back to the woman.

"I'm not here to hurt you! You weren't meant to find out this way..."

"What? Let my brother down," The girl showed no signs of moving, "Maybe then we can talk."

The woman sighed, her dark hair falling around her face. Slowly, she lowered her hand and Sam glided to the floor where he quickly snatched up his weapon.

"No guns!" The woman cried and snapped her fingers. Both Dean and Sam's pistols flew straight towards the girl where she kicked them off the bed, "Let me explain..."

"How do you know my name?" Dean growled, he stepped towards her but unwittingly flinched when she raised her hand protectively.

"I know you both. I have done for a while now." The woman put her hand back under Sam's pillow and removed what she had stashed there. A small burlap bag with an inscription on it.

"It's a hex bag!" Dean yelled, withdrawing a blade from his coat and lunging at the girl.

Sam's hand whipped out to stop him, "Wait!"

The girl looked at Sam gratefully, showing young blue eyes.

"It's a blessing bag..." Sam mumbled, "A protection..."

"And I've been leaving them everywhere I can for you for about the last fifteen years..."

Dean gave a side glance to Sam who nodded briefly.

"Why?!" Dean asked gruffly. Unsurprisingly he was skeptical about a young witch appearing where he slept at night.

"When I was five, you came to me, to my family, in Maine. They were witches too... all natural born and..."

"They were going to use you in a sacrifice... I remember." Sam murmured, "We left you...and your mother... and she promised..."

" _I know what she promised."_ The woman hissed angrily, her face reddening with embarrassment. "She lied... she tried to make me... like her..."

"Evil." Dean filled in.

"She's...gone... now... it was that or,"

The girl shook her head.

"How do we know you ain't some witch bitch trying to get on up in here just to kill us while we sleep, hey?!" Dean's fingers twitched for his weapon.

"Two weeks ago... you stayed at the Solana Motel in Illinois... you were hunting," Her eyes screwed up and she gave her hair a small tug, "Vampires! You were hunting vampires! Before that it was Ohio and a shapeshifter. You don't know me... but I know you. I've been following as much as I can since I was a ten year old. I've been protecting you."

"Well you've been doing a pretty bad job, kid," Dean snapped and the girl flinched backwards.

"I... I tried my best... but"

"What about Kevin, hey?! Charlie?! I guess they just weren't worth protecting were they?"

"Dean..." Sam tried to place a hand on his brother's shoulder but Dean whirled away from the touch. "They're protection bags, Dean. They weren't made to withstand bullets or blades."

The girl nodded in thanks to the taller man. "I wasn't there for Charlie's death... or Kevin's... sometimes I lost track of you... or I just couldn't get there in time. I've learned things but I'm not invincible... I can't _teleport_." She scoffed.

Dean started to pace.

"This isn't possible. If you were trying to help us... why weren't you _there_?!" Sam asked.

"I was raised with black magic... I was afraid if I tried to help fight I'd get out of control. I'm powerful, I can feel it, it aches to come out of me but I didn't know what would happen when I did. I was a coward... I was scared... I was..."

Sam, sensing he was pushing too far, came towards her. He sat on the bed and gently rested a hand on her knee, "Hey, hey, it's okay."

The girl blinked away tears.

"What's your name?"

"It's Jane," Dean filled in from the background, "I remember."


	2. Chapter 2

"What now?" Dean mumbled to Sam. Only agreeing to give them back their weapons if they talked in a public place, they had taken Jane to nearby diner, and left her stuffing her face with french fries. "I'm not doubting she is who she says she is... but what's she here for? You're telling me she's been following us around in the shadows for the best part of fifteen years just to slip a couple protection bags under our pillows?"

"I think she's scared Dean... she's powerful we can see that. She doesn't know what's happening... whose been teaching her for the last ten years?"

"Yeah, well we don't have time to babysit some twenty year old kid!"

"Twenty-two!" Jane shouted out through a mouthful of food.

Dean looked shocked, his eyes widening he stepped even closer to Sam, "She has _super hearing?!_ "

Sam gave a strained smile to Jane, who went straight back to eating, "You're just really loud, Dean."

Dean pondered this. Excepted it as truth and carried on with a nod.

"Okay, you're right we don't have time to look after to her but she might have been around when the darkness was released, we should see what happened."

They wandered back over and Jane quickly dabbed at her face with a napkin.

"Listen kid, we appreciate the help but everyone around us dies and we don't have to time to stop you from getting yourself killed or going rogue and killing us," Dean assured her.

"I can help,"

"We're sure you could but,"

"You can't stop me,"

"We can't but,"

"So you could either help me and I'll help you or I'll fight this fight by myself. All one hundred pounds and five foot four of me. Alone. In danger. Probably near death at all times."

"Listen kid, you don't wanna do this." Dean leaned forward, "The second you get involved with this you get put in danger and you probably die, anyway. You get the King of Hell, vampires, monsters, goblins, ghouls and anything that goes bump in the night after you,"

"As well as the darkness?" Jane spoke gutturally, "The darkness _you_ let free,"

"Hey!" Sam reached out to defend his brother but Jane cut him off.

"This is my fight as much as it is yours and I am more powerful to you and more helpful to you then you even are to each other,"

"...We don't even know what we're up against here, Jane," Sam admitted.

"Okay... neither do I... but Castiel... him I think I can help,"

Sam and Dean already had Rowena in their custody... which meant they could keep her and use someone who may or may not be on their side to fix Castiel. Sam had made his choice already but Dean was less sure, placing his trust in another person was going to be hard. However, Jane was the logical choice over Rowena even if they hadn't seen her for fifteen years.

"Fine. You help Cas, we help you," Dean said, producing a pair of cuffs from his jacket. "But you wear these."

Jane sat in front of Castiel, taking in those bleeding eyes and the pulsating veins in his neck. Why did she ever think she could do this? She could heal a bruise easily. A cut was harder than a bruise. A break was harder than a cut and so on... but black magic?

"Okay kid, do your thing," Dean stood next to her, his gun poised at her temple. Sam had disappeared downstairs in order to keep an eye on Rowena.

Jane raised her wrists and jangled the cursed cuffs at Dean, "Hello?"

"Right, magic," Using one hand to keep the gun at her head, Dean used the other to fish into his pocket and find the key, quickly he unlocked the girl's hands.

"Okay..."

"Dean..." Cas moaned, the vein in his neck throbbed quicker and suddenly he doubled over in pain.

"Jane, if you wanna start earning brownie points now would be a good place to start," Dean yelled at her.

Jane ran through spells in her head despite the fact she had absolutely no prior experience with anything this level. A cold sweat enclosed her and she was frozen. Cats writhed in pain, screaming primally.

"Do something!" Dean demanded.

Jane drew her fingernails down her pale face as she watched this man she had promised to help struggle against his bonds.

"Mystica Potestates cerae et flamma , vocat per tempora," Jane began to chant and felt the familiar flow of warmth run up the underside of her arms but before she could come even remotely close to finishing the spell there was an almighty crack as Castiel ripped the arms of the chair he was sitting in clean off. Cas swung wildly, catching Jane across her face with the broken chair arm and knocking her out completely.

"Hey! Hey!" Dean tried to calm him but Cas ran straight for the door.

Dean edged towards Castiel, edged towards running back for Sam and edged towards helping the bleeding girl on the floor. This was all it took for Cas to be out the door and running.

"God dammit," Dean knelt down and cradled Jane's head in his hands. The dark brown hair around her forehead had turned black with sticky blood. Dean probed the wound and found the cut was shallow and small, just bleeding heavily and, to his amazement, he sighed in relief. Maybe it was her age... or the fact she was a girl... maybe it was because she reminded him of Charlie.

"God dammit!" He kicked the leg of the table. He knew this wouldn't work, how in the hell could he have believed that a twenty year old witch could undo what had taken hundreds of years to hone.

Sam rushed into the room, skidding to the floor when he saw Jane and Dean.

"What happened?!" Sam demanded.

"She didn't finish, Cas went wild and got free, I'll take her to one of the room, you get Rowena and the car."

Sam nodded, looking anxiously at the young woman, before turning to do as he was told.

When Jane woke up, she was alone. She sat up, her head spinning, gingerly she touched where she had been hit and was surprised to find it bandaged. The act of kindness left her crestfallen, angry tears pricked at her eyes and she hastily wiped them away. She had tried to use a power she never had and it had backfired immensely. Now, Castiel was in trouble and so were the Winchester's, especially if she had given them any hope that she capable of helping them.

Jane knew what she had to do.

"...Et ad congregandum...eos coram me." Her blood was set alight as she threw the matchstick in. Standing at the altar she had made, Jane prayed for this to work.

Jane flinched as a figure blocked out the warmth on her back.

"Hello, sweetheart,"

"Crowley," Jane affirmed.


	3. Chapter 3

"What can I do for you, my dear?" Crowley stuck his hands into his pockets and strolled towards the woman who instinctively took a step back.

"I need more power... dark power..." She said, bowing her head in embarrassment.

Crowley's face spread into a smile, like a wolf that spots prey, he advanced on her. Jane flinched backwards but Crowley through up a hand and suddenly she was powerless.

"Well, there's just a small price to pay for that, love,"

"Not my soul," Jane spat back, keeping a careful eye on Crowley as he circled her. "I almost gave you that once,"

"Yes, but this time it would be your choice!" Crowley said smugly.

Jane closed her eyes, her head hurt. She could barely remember the actual occasion of her near death but her mother had informed her all about it years later... when the woman had tried once again to give Jane as a gift to Crowley.

"I would have taken care of you," Crowley smirked.

Jane shook her head, her fingernails were digging into her palms as she tried to conceal her fear. The King of Hell was hardly an ally of hers.

"I'm keeping my soul," She demanded.

"And what do I get in return? What do you have that I could possibly need?" Crowley demanded.

"You can have my permission," Jane watched as Crowley faltered, still smiling. The demon brought his fingers to his lips as he pondered. A willing human meant more than a meat suit and this one, this one had power. Nothing in comparison to Crowley himself but with the right tutoring... the right power exchange... she could be something. There was a reason that Crowley had wanted her when she was just a child. Now, she would be harder to manipulate but she was still young and with what Crowley had planned for her... he was sure he could turn her over to his side.

"For anything, Jane," Crowley insisted, "Anything,"

"And you give me what I need?"

"You understand how to get it?"

"Yes,"

"Then what are we waiting for," Crowley held out his hand, "Let's get you a hit of the good stuff."


	4. Chapter 4

"Dean..." Sam's head poked out of his room, "Dean, Jane isn't in here,"

Dean furrowed his brow and closed the book on old lore that he had begun reading. Finding and defeating Amara had taken precedent over Jane's sudden presence in their lives.

"Jane...?" Dean asked gruffly, knowing she could have been anywhere in the bunker. "Jane!"

Sam began looking in the kitchen and the other rooms that were available, "Jane!"

"Looks like she's taken your advice and left," Sam said sullenly, though Dean could swear there was a hint of disgust in his voice, "Yesterday we had Cas, Rowena and Jane under wraps,"

"I'm still under wraps," Castiel entered the room, "I was watching the Netflix again."

"Jane's gone," Sam said, sitting down beside his brother and grabbing a book as well.

"I gathered from all the... shouting," Castiel gingerly touched his head, the spell Rowena had cast on him was gone but there was a certain amount of aftermath he was having to deal with. "Aren't you more concerned?"

Sam looked up.

Dean looked up.

"Well we weren't until you just said that, Cas," Dean sighed.

"Anyone with attachments to you two should be considered in danger until proven out of it. Especially if they disappear without warning."

Sam looked up at his big brother, and Dean was well aware that Sam was doing that concerned eyebrow thing that he did.

"We don't have anyway of contacting her," Sam insisted and it was true but Dean was beginning to feel concerned. It was true that she might have just decided it was for the best to leave. Or, she had been captured by an enemy, someone desperate to gain leverage on the boys and now she was being brutally tortured all because of them.

Dean tried not to think about that.


End file.
